BAST  The Memoirs of an Imperial Officer
by EKI-Niwatori
Summary: Within is the story of Bast - an Imperial Officer onboard the DEATH STAR.


**BAST - The Memoirs of an Imperial Officer **

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. Contains original dialogue.

Note: I wrote this story nearly 4-5 years ago. I only just rediscovered it after my laptop recovered from a serious error. I have decided to post it here for fun. This story was written from the perspective of Bast, an Imperial Officer on the DEATH STAR. From memory he is only in the film for a short period. This is to be posted in five parts. It is certainly not as 'complete' and polished as I would prefer, but I find it difficult to edit something I wrote so long ago.

**PART ONE**

**Location: Docking Bay 327, DEATH STAR**

The DEATH STAR is complete. It only took nineteen years.

And it didn't take long for our celebrating to cease.

In typical Storm Trooper fashion they managed to lose a full technical read-out of this battle station. We do not yet know exactly how they managed to lose the single most vital piece of information for this battle station, but they did. I cannot say that I am surprised.

In an attempt to find out the how, I received the fun task of interrogating everyone aboard the station. Tarkin's orders were 'Bast, talk to everyone – nobody, not even myself, is above suspicion.'

I then had to inspect all outgoing and incoming transmissions, including my own. I discovered nothing, though I did make note of how few incoming transmissions I received.

Vader however, felt the need to conduct his own individual interrogations. Thus far, ten Storm Troopers have been admitted to the infirmary with serious damage to their esophageus. It is expected they will be discharged from the military for medical reasons. Vader is still no closer to finding the leak then I am.

It is really only a matter of time until Tarkin has his next brilliant idea to reveal our traitor, an idea that will simultaneously waste Empire resources and reveal absolutely nothing. And so, in an effort to discourage the idea making, I have retreated to the control room of Docking Bay 327.

Tarkin has called on me twice today. Fortunately, he wasn't calling to have me conduct interrogations, rather he called me to fetch his coffee, and a second time because a group of storm troopers had a fight and Tarkin wanted me to console one of them. Now of course my job really does not require my presence in Docking Bay 327, but this area has two great benefits; one the aforementioned avoidance of Tarkin and second the swivel chairs here. I really did need to find out where these chairs came from. They were infinitely more comfortable then the one in my office.

My actual job is quite a different one to describe. What I actually do seems to be very different to what it says on my contract. Lately it seems my entire time is consumed by arranging petty things for Tarkin, like his money coffee or walking his pet dog. I think it is worth nothing that I am, officially a general. Although, it has been a long time, or so it seems, since I've had to make any serious military decisions that one might expect from a General. Fortunately I still get paid as general, yet with none of the pressures involved. Although it is necessary to factor Lord Vader into the equation, however, generally I feel safe behind Tarkin.

"Bast, do you copy?" Not good. A storm trooper is calling me back. Tarkin must want some coffee.

"This is Bast, over." I answer back into the comlink. Damn. While I am not worried about Tarkin asking where I've been, Vader most certainly will ask what I've been doing.

"Report to your station immediately." The storm trooper replies.

The officer next to me who's chair I have been commandeering for the past three hours looks very pleased at the idea of getting his chair back. I think I will investigate where we purchased these chairs. They don't look it but they are surprisingly comfortable.

**Location: Main Control Room, DEATH STAR**

"Ah, Bast! You missed our meeting today." Tarkin is standing on the overbridge with that insufferable smirk on his face.

"It was quite the interesting meeting." Tarkin continues. The smirk is not fading. But at least he hasn't asked why I missed the meeting. I imagine hiding from Vader is not a sufficient excuse.

"I did not receive the memo, sir." I finally say. It was a reasonable excuse in my mind. Note to self: remove memo from bin and put it through the shredder.

"Is that so? Well, my aide isn't very reliable. He bought me the wrong coffee with my lunch today." Tarkin says, and I can almost see his hand itching to write out the transfer form. "But you can deal with that later, I have more important things to discuss with you."

I wait for the rest of the story to come. Sometimes talking with Tarkin is like pulling hen's teeth.

"The Emperor has dissolved the Senate." Tarkin says, speaking as if one were discussing the weather.

"But… Who will – "

"Bast, that is of no importance. " Tarkin snaps, waving his arm to silence me. "What I did need to discuss is this - General Tagge believes we are vulnerable." Tarkin's expression suggests this is absolutely absurd thing for Tagge to believe.

He is now staring at me waiting for my reaction. I am still trying to process exactly what is going on. This is what I mean by pulling teeth. Tarkin doesn't tell you the whole story; he tells you the middle and expects you to instantly be with him. And apparently bitching about Tagge is more important then dissolving the Senate.

"To what, sir?" I reply. I really should have said 'that's absurd', that would have pleased Tarkin. But I needed to know what was happening in the likely event of further questions on the topic.

"The Rebels! Honestly Bast, haven't you been listening?" Tarkin just looked annoyed now. He doesn't like explaining himself. But it does explain a lot – this is about Vader's missing readout, there must be some kind of problem with the DEATH STAR after all.

"Did the rebels find a flaw in the readout?" I ask. I know Vader was assigned the job of getting it his back. He mustn't have had too much success.

"Vader says the plans will soon be back in our hands. It doesn't matter though. Soon this station will be fully operational and it will crush the rebel alliance."

"We know the location of the rebel base then?" Perhaps more happened in this meeting then I thought?

"Princess Leia will supply us with the location of the rebel base. Vader is with her right now. He thinks his mind probe will work. I have a better plan, Bast." Tarkin is wearing the smirk again, but this time it is bordering very close to scary.

"What's that, sir?"

"We are going to threaten to blow up her home planet." Tarkin grins at me. "Well, I'm going to blow it up anyway. But don't tell her that."

"Okay, sir." I answer. What exactly does one say to their boss declaring they are going to threaten and likely commit genocide? And knowing Tarkin, go through with it.

"Bast, the probe won't work," Tarkin says, but before he could continue in apparently trying to convince me of this, Vader enters the room. Tarkin smiles before turning to face Vader.

"Her resistance to the mind probe is considerable. It will be some time before we can extract any information from her." Vader says, confirming what Tarkin had suspected.

Vader has yet to notice me, so I start slinking towards the door. I need to go talk to Tagge and have him explain to me why he thinks the rebels are still a threat. We are the ones with the big spiffy space station. I want to know if there is some kind of threat to this station.

One of the many Imperial officers interrupts the meeting, "The final check-out is complete. All systems are operational. What course shall we set?"

The smirk appears, "Perhaps she would respond to an alternative form of persuasion." Tarkin says.

"What do you mean?" Vader would probably sound curious if he could use voice expression

"I think it's time we demonstrate the full power of this station," Tarkin says to Vader. He then addresses the soldier, "Set your course for Princess Leia's home planet of Alderaan."

The officer had the perfect response, "With pleasure."

At least I know the type of responses I give in regards to planned genocide, and from the sounds of it Tarkin wasn't bluffing about blowing up the planet either. Now, at the door I can escape this. Tarkin and Vader will be discussing genocide for hours now. It's one more thing they'll have in common. I leave the room, shut the door and start my search for General Tagge.

I will of course return when they start the blasting. It won't be long before we arrive in Alderaan so I haven't long to find out our vulnerabilities.

Hopefully it's not instant implosion at first use of our planet-destroying blaster.


End file.
